Doctor gives real reason 'everyone' seems to have ADHD now

A doctor has explained why he believes so many people seem to be getting diagnosed with ADHD.

There is an estimated 2.5 million people living with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England, with ADHD UK estimating this figure is as high as 2.9 million people across the whole of the UK. And it's a figure which is growing.

Diagnoses have seen 20-fold increase between 2000 and 2018, according to data shared by NIHR, while there has been a 50-fold increase in ADHD prescriptions in men aged 18-29.

So, why has there been an increase in people being diagnosed with the condition?

It's a topic which Scottish writer and GP Gavin Francis explores in his new book The Unfragile Mind: Making Sense of Mental Health.

ADHD diagnoses appear to have been on the rise in the past few decades – but why is this? (Getty Stock Images)

Speaking about the topic in a recent interview with The Times, Francis revealed that psychiatric referrals for adult ADHD assessment had gone from three percent to 25 percent within the past five years.

The increase in diagnosis is understood to be largely down to improved awareness and acceptance of neurodivergence, especially in adults who believe they may have overlooked their symptoms during childhood.

"Whilst ADHD is most likely to be diagnosed in childhood, an increasing number of people are diagnosed for the first time in adulthood," Dr Doug McKechnie said in a recent UCL study examining the increase in diagnosis.

"We do not know exactly why this is happening, but it may be that ADHD has become better recognised and diagnosed."

Meanwhile, Francis noted that thresholds for ADHD diagnosis has also 'dropped' over the past 20-30 years. Prescriptions for ADHD medication have also increase, something which the GP revealed he was skeptical of.

"I’ve had numerous patients who have not found the drugs very helpful," he explained. "They’ve helped a little bit in the beginning, but then they’ve come off them because ultimately they felt a bit strange on them."

ADHD is traditionally diagnosed in childhood, however, there was recently been an increase in adults being diagnosed (Getty Stock Images)

The GP also noted the issue of conflating a diagnosis with disability, explaining that not everyone who is diagnosed with mental health conditions such as anxiety, autism or ADHD is unable to work.

"Diagnosis doesn’t equal disability — it is a different thing," Francis explained. "One person with a slipped disc, or leukaemia, might be able to work very well depending on their role, while another with the same diagnosis is incapable of work.

"The same goes for mental health conditions," he continued. "There’s a complexity to the messy realities of people’s lives that our benefits system is very ill-equipped — and under-resourced — to deal with.

"It’s uncontroversial that two people might have the same diagnosis but utterly different capacity to work."